Hasbro CEO Says TRANSFORMERS 4 Will Revolve Around New Cast of Robots to Boost Toy Sales; Plus New Placeholder Logo

We previously learned that none of the original cast of the Transformersseries will return for Transformers 4, and the sequel will feature “some redesign of the robots.” However, MichaelBay and Co. may be taking those ideas further than you thought. Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner talked a bit about Transformers 4 at the UBS Best Of Americas 2012 Conference* and unveiled the placeholder logo seen above. According to TFW2005 [via Bleeding Cool], Goldner lamented the stagnant toy sales around the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, presumably because audiences had already spent two whole movies with these played-out giant robot characters. Hence, Transformers 4 will reportedly tell a new story about a new group of robots so Hasbro can reinvent the brand with a new (and thus much hipper) toy line. There are good narrative reasons to change up the roster, but it’s hard to stay positive when the primary source of the movie’s news is a toy company CEO.

“It’s not a reboot, that’s maybe the wrong word. I don’t want to say reboot because then people will think we’re doing a Spider-Man and starting from the beginning. We’re not. We’re taking the story that you’ve seen—the story we’ve told in three movies already—and we’re taking it in a new direction. But we’re leaving those three as the history. It all still counts. I met with the writer before I went off to do Pain and Gain and we talked about a bunch of ideas. We let that simmer for a bit. He’s been thinking about stuff and now we’re getting back together next week to see what we’ve got and to see if it gels.”

Bay also said the studio wants to cut $30 million from your typical Transformers budget (Dark of the Moon cost about $200 million), and hinted that the new movie may spend more time in space.

Transformers 4 is scheduled for release on June 27, 2014 with a 40% chance of being an unintelligible mess, but an 80% chance of better toy sales.